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UW Graduate Student Participates in Chief Scientist Training Program

November 12, 2013 — Will Fortin finds time on the ocean peaceful, a
place where he can block out daily diversions and focus squarely on the seismic
marine research project of the moment.

“What I like best about being at sea is time to be
totally focused on research,” says the University of Wyoming doctoral candidate
in the Department
of Geology and Geophysics. “It’s a time when you’re with a bunch
of other people who are motivated. You work 15-16 hours a day with no
distractions. That’s what I like best.”

Fortin, of Avon Lake, Ohio, was one of 14 graduate
students or early-career oceanographers nationwide who participated in a recent
Chief Scientist
Training workshop funded by the National Science
Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

The training program, coordinated by the
University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), took place Oct.
19-28 at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography
and aboard the RV Endeavor, URI’s research ship. The research cruise, which
spent a week at specific locations in the middle Atlantic Ocean, began and
ended at URI’s Marine Operation Facilities in Narragansett, R.I.

“I’m looking at ocean turbulence, and how it can be meaningful
to the world’s climate,” Fortin says. “It’s (turbulence) a small specific part
of it.”

In addition to previous research cruise experience,
Fortin believes he was chosen, in part, due to his background in marine geology
and geophysics. Most of the other applicants, and those chosen, had traditional
backgrounds in biological, chemical and physical oceanography, he says.

“I applied to work with acoustic instruments on
board. Seismology is acoustics,” Fortin says.

Toys
and turbulence

During the cruise, Fortin used various high-tech instruments
to study the interaction of ocean currents and the sea floor. He used an Acoustic
Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) that makes an acoustic sound and records a
reflection back from suspended sediment.

“It’s similar to when the sound of a siren is coming
toward you and then away,” Fortin says. “This instrument works on the same
principle. If the current is moving toward you, it becomes a higher frequency.
The frequency becomes lower when it moves away from you.”

He also used an echo sounder that works much like a
fish finder. The instrument emits a “ping” sound, and measures water depth by
sending pressure waves down from the surface and recording the time until the
echo returns from the bottom.

Additionally, an Underway Conductivity, Temperature
and Depth Instrument, or uCTD that is shaped like a small torpedo, can provide
salinity, temperature and depth readings. The instrument can be towed along
while the ship is moving.

“In seismic oceanography, the way we image the ocean
relies on small changes in temperature and salinity,” Fortin says. “With data from the uCTD, I can get similar information and calculate
approximate levels of turbulence.”

An
old hand on deck

The training cruise and workshops were designed to
help younger scientists understand the process of requesting ship time and the
complicated logistics involved in planning an expedition; ensuring proper
equipment is aboard; allocating space for scientists; and numerous other
details necessary to make a research cruise run smoothly.

“Early career scientists often find it challenging
to get access to research vessels and, sometimes on their first cruise, they
have to serve as chief scientist,” says Annette DeSilva, assistant executive
secretary of UNOLS. “There is a lot of responsibility that comes with being
chief scientist, so this cruise gives them hands-on practice that will help
them for the rest of their career.”

Fortin is no stranger to research cruises. During
graduate school, he has been part of two cruises off Nicaragua and Costa Rica;
two more in the Cascadia region near Oregon and Washington; and one in the Adriatic
Sea off of Italy’s coast.

As Fortin has learned, no cruise goes smoothly.
Having accompanied his adviser, Steve Holbrook, a UW professor of geology and
geophysics, on three previous research trips, Fortin learned a lesson early on.

“Steve says, ‘Do what you can to get the core of
your science accomplished,’” Fortin recalls.

During one research cruise in 2012, the science had
to be shut down for a spell due to whales in the area. Rather than panic,
Fortin says Holbrook just waited for the whales to move on before ramping up
the expedition again.

That experience helped Fortin keep his cool when
inclement weather at sea forced the RV Endeavor to reverse its original plan of
going out to the deep ocean first before moving in toward the shallows.
Instead, the vessel started in the shallow water before moving out to sea as
the weather improved.

“The weather was pretty rough. We had to change our
schedule before we even left,” Fortin says. “If you had never been on a cruise
before, that would crush you right off the bat.”

“The oceanography community needs to train not only
the next generation of sea-going scientists, but also the next generation of
those who will step up and take charge to organize cruises,” says David Smith,
associate dean of URI’s Graduate School of Oceanography. “That’s what this
program is all about.”

Bridging
his science

Fortin plans to use data gathered from this most
recent cruise to help him answer questions to research he conducted off Costa
Rica. There, he studied lee waves, which are vertical underwater waves that are
stationary. Lee waves are formed when underwater currents make contact with rough
topography, such as hills or ridges on the seafloor.

His research there focuses on how much turbulence
the lee waves create.

“I want to bridge the two data sets,” says Fortin,
who had to rely more on existing literature than direct measurements during his
work in Costa Rica. “I will know more of how currents interact with the sea
floor on this cruise. With that knowledge, I can better inform my work with lee
waves off Costa Rica.”

Areas of increased turbulence are important because
of the “mixing problem” being studied in oceanography circles, he says. At the
Earth’s poles, water sinks in the oceans because of the cold temperatures. In
the rest of the world, water must rise and mix with warmer waters. However,
when open-ocean upwelling is measured, it accounts for only 10 percent of what
it should be, Fortin says.

“In order to understand how our climate works,
oceans are a major driver,” Fortin says. “The ocean is what helps us regulate
our planet’s climate.”

He adds, “If this turns out to be an analogous
study, this will go in my dissertation.”

Photo: Will Fortin, a UW doctoral student in geology
and geophysics, participated in a Chief Scientist Training workshop funded by
the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Here, he
holds an instrument called a uCTD that can provide salinity, temperature and
depth readings of the ocean. (Gordy Stephenson Photo)